Trump’s Greenland fixation feels totally different now

[ad_1] 2025 is ending a lot because it started: with President Donald Trump speaking about annexing Greenland.

On Sunday, Trump appointed Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry as a particular envoy to Greenland with the aim, as Landry put it, “to make Greenland part of the US.” Although the territory has been shifting step by step towards better independence, Greenland has been underneath Danish rule because the 18th century. “We'd like Greenland for nationwide safety,” Trump instructed reporters on Monday.

The transfer provoked a pointy response from the prime ministers of Denmark and Greenland, who said in a joint statement : “Nationwide borders and the sovereignty of states are rooted in worldwide legislation. … You can't annex different international locations.” Different European leaders have weighed in, as properly, with French President Emmanuel Macron reaffirming that “France’s unwavering help for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Denmark and Greenland.”

Trump has been talking about both shopping for or annexing the world’s largest island since 2019, throughout his first time period. He introduced up the problem once more final January, when he raised alarm in European capitals by refusing to rule out utilizing army power to take the territory if essential. However, whereas he once described management of Greenland as an “absolute necessity” for US nationwide safety, the problem had been on the again burner for many of this yr till Landry’s appointment, excluding occasional flare-ups over alleged US influence operations concentrating on the island.

Trump’s Greenland fixation had as soon as appeared considerably random. Danish leaders initially hoped it was a joke . However after a yr of seeing Trump’s second time period overseas coverage in motion — significantly the current launch of his administration’s National Security Strategy (NSS) — the Greenland gambit now appears to really serve his broader objectives. It makes much more sense within the context of the president’s surprisingly activist vision of America’s function on this planet.

Greenland suits into the administration’s heavy concentrate on the Western Hemisphere and what the NSS calls the “Trump corollary to the Monroe Doctrine” to “deny non-Hemispheric rivals the power to place forces or different threatening capabilities, or to personal or management strategically important property, in our Hemisphere.”

Explaining Greenland’s safety significance on Monday, Trump mentioned, “When you search for and down the coast of Greenland, you possibly can see Russian and Chinese language ships everywhere.” It’s true that the Arctic is more and more turning into an area of strategic competition , as melting ice makes it extra accessible, and that China and Russia have been build up army and business property within the area, although neither has performed so particularly close to Greenland .

However having Greenland underneath the management of a pleasant European authorities isn't any consolation to this White Home.

Critics routinely level out that Greenland’s strategic significance shouldn't be an argument for really controlling it. The US already has a army base in Greenland, and the Danes have made clear they’re not against an expanded US army presence. The Danish authorities has, up to now, blocked Chinese commercial interests in Greenland , partially out of a need to take care of good relations with Washington.

However having Greenland underneath the management of a pleasant European authorities isn't any consolation to this White Home. Within the worldview specified by the NSS, liberal European governments are viewed as a threat to American pursuits on par with if not better than China and Russia. In a recent interview , Vice President JD Vance even questioned whether or not European governments with “damaging ethical concepts” may very well be trusted with nuclear weapons.

The NSS requires selling “patriotic” (i.e., right-wing) events in Europe, and an earlier draft reportedly referred to as for urging international locations to tug away from the European Union. An effort to peel away strategically necessary territory near North America from European management could be very a lot in line with this effort.

As political scientist Abraham Newman recently told Vox, Trump’s territorial threats in opposition to Greenland and different US neighbors like Canada are very a lot in line with a “neo-royalist” worldview, which rejects the notion that every one international locations have equal sovereignty. “It’s about dominance, about saying [to Canada and Denmark], ‘You aren't equal to us ,’” Newman mentioned.

The seemingly unusual appointment of Landry — who has little overseas coverage expertise and is staying in workplace as governor of Louisiana as he takes on this new function — can be in line with a Trump diplomatic strategy that's extra typically carried out via a semi-formal community of allies and loyalists, fairly than via the normal US overseas coverage forms. An outdated good friend of Trump’s, the cosmetics heir Ronald Lauder , might have been the one who initially planted the thought of controlling Greenland in his head.

Lastly, Trump might have mentioned this week that US curiosity in Greenland is “not for its minerals,” nevertheless it’s been broadly reported that Lauder and other Trump associates have been working to promote him on the potential riches beneath Greenland’s soil. Greenland is believed to have giant deposits of oil, in addition to quite a lot of minerals, together with the uncommon earth components that China presently has a close to monopoly over. If nothing else, the occasions of this yr have driven home the fact that US choices on China coverage are restricted so long as that monopoly continues.

Once more, US firms can exploit these sources ( and to some extent, they already are ) with out Greenland really being a part of the US. However underneath Trump, the US has taken a stake in overseas chip gross sales, tied diplomacy in Ukraine to minerals concessions, and made retaking Venezuelan oil fields an specific purpose of the US army build-up concentrating on that nation. The road between business pursuits and safety objectives is much extra porous underneath this administration than it has been up to now.

The US really taking management of Greenland nonetheless looks like an excessive lengthy shot. There’s little indication that Greenlanders need to be part of this US or will likely be swayed by Landry’s charm offensive .

However, as a marketing campaign to take management of a mineral wealthy area pushed by his enterprise companions and carried out by his ideological allies whereas cementing American dominance within the Western Hemisphere and undermining European sovereignty within the course of, it feels right this moment much less like an eccentric deviation for Trump’s overseas coverage than a neat distillation of it.